A summary of moves in APAC's wealth management sector.

Jonathan Gan, a former head of the family office group, South Asia, for Citigroup in Singapore, moved to work as executive director, alternative capital markets group, at Goldman Sachs. Gan, who worked at Citigroup from July 2021 until October this year, was previously an MD at HSBC from 2012 to 2021.

The Hong Kong business of Knight Frank appointed Virginia Huang as the managing director, North and East China based in Shanghai. Reporting to Craig Shute, CEO of Greater China, Huang, who oversees the firm’s operations in the Beijing and Shanghai offices, has more than 27 years’ experience in commercial real estate.

Raffles Family Office named senior LVMH figure Chris Chong as a board advisor. Chong is the LVMH Group’s executive vice president for South and South East Asia, including Oceania. Before this, he was CEO for retail and workspace at CapitaLand Investment, a global property investment manager. 

M&G Investments appointed Kristy Wong and Alfred Foo as head of intermediary distribution for Greater China and Southeast Asia, respectively. Based in Hong Kong, Wong leads M&G’s intermediary distribution business across Greater China, in particular Hong Kong and mainland China. Wong, who has more than 15 years of experience in the region, previously served as senior vice president of intermediary distribution for Greater China at PineBridge Investments. Based in Singapore, Foo builds on M&G’s distribution partnership with OCBC Singapore.

Bank of Singapore appointed Canis Chi as market head of Greater China, Hong Kong. Chi reports to Rickie Chan, head of private banking, Greater China, and CEO of the Hong Kong branch. With more than two decades’ experience, Chi worked at Bank of China (Hong Kong) Private Banking for 10 years. She has also worked at Deutsche Bank and Citibank.

EFG Bank AG, part of Zurich-listed EFG International, appointed former Credit Suisse senior figure Dr Urs Buchmann as vice chairman and Ashish Gumashta as a member of its regional Asia advisory board. Dr Buchmann has more than three decades’ experience in Greater China. Most recently, he served as VC of Credit Suisse in Hong Kong, where he was responsible for developing its activities in Greater China and other markets in the region, including Japan, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, Bangladesh and Mongolia.

Gumashta, who has 30 years’ experience dealing with the Indian market, has served as managing director of strategic initiatives at Motilal Oswal, the Indian financial services group, and as the executive chairman and CEO of Julius Baer, India.

The former chief executive of UBS and Dutch bank ING, Ralph Hamers, became an external advisor of Arta Finance, the AI-driven wealth platform in the US that recently obtained a licence in Singapore and a capital injection from the Asian city state. 

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Asset Management Americas, the US arm of Japan’s SuMi TRUST, appointed Yusuke Karube as its new president and CEO. He took over from Shigeki Katoh, who returned to Tokyo. The new CEO was part of the team that established SMTAMA in 2020 where he worked alongside Katoh. Karube has spent 17 years of his 30 years’ experience in the financial services industry at SuMi TRUST.

Knight Frank appointed Craig Shute as CEO of Asia-Pacific (APAC), effective 1 April 2025. He is CEO of the Greater China business and took over from Kevin Coppel, who retires in March 2025. Shute, who joined Knight Frank last year, has more than 25 years of experience in the real estate industry, gained in senior leadership roles across Australia, Malaysia, Hong Kong SAR, and the US.

Bank of Singapore appointed former Credit Suisse senior figure Karthik Shenoy as its new head of platforms and transformation in the lender’s chief operating office. Shenoy, based in Singapore, reports to COO, Jacky Ang. Shenoy, who has more than 20 years of experience in the financial services industry, has held senior positions in business and technology domains. Previously, he worked at Credit Suisse where he was global head of financing technology and head of Asia-Pacific wealth technology. 

New York-headquartered BNY appointed Jamie Pratt as head of APAC corporate trust, responsible for leading and continuing to develop and execute the corporate trust strategy for the region. Pratt joined from HSBC where he led the issuer services business in the Americas region, providing client solutions across the spectrum of corporate trust, loans, structured and project finance client segments for both domestic and international transactions. Pratt replaced Kenneth Cheong who left the role in the summer. Prior to leading the corporate trust business at HSBC, Pratt worked at BNP Paribas in London and New York in private capital and corporate trust.

Ogier Global, the corporate and fiduciary services arm of Ogier, appointed Hoan Nguyen in the newly-formed role of commercial director of its Singapore office. Nguyen has over 17 years of experience in asset and wealth management.

BNP Paribas’ Securities Services business, the custodian for buy- and sell-side market players, appointed Laure Ly as head of Hong Kong. Ly succeeded Julien Kasparian, who was appointed as regional head UK & Middle East for Securities Services, subject to regulatory approvals. She started her career with the Securities Services business of BNP Paribas in 2004.

Fiera Capital Corporation appointed John Cappetta, who is based in Singapore, as managing director, head of Asia, excluding Japan and Korea, Fiera Capital Asi. This is a newly-formed role. Cappetta, who has over 34 years’ experience to Fiera, was most recently head of private banking and Asia advisor to global investment manager Ninety One. Prior to that, Cappetta served as managing director senior advisor to Swiss private bank Julius Baer where he was based in the bank’s Singapore office for six years. Cappetta reports to Rob Petty, executive director and CEO, Fiera Capital Asia.

Investment house Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo, or GMO, appointed Dexter Chua as its head of intermediary business, Asia – excluding Japan â€“ for GMO Singapore. Chua, who has more than 15 years’ industry experience, previously worked at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, where he served for more than nine years as an executive director and head of Southeast Asia in its third-party wealth business.

MSCI appointed one of its senior figures, Shane Edwards, as head of Asia-Pacific client coverage. Edwards, who was head of Australia and New Zealand client coverags, reports to Axel Kilian, chief client officer. Kazuya Nagasawa, the previous head of APAC client coverage, left to pursue new opportunities. Before he joined MSCI in February 2024, Edwards was global head of equity derivatives at UBS.